Tesla Motors

the battery swap idea died on the vine. no one used it. I follow this company quite closely. as for the superchargers....the original "free for life" isn't working out. EX. at least one taxi company in Europe runs a business model that includes charging its fleet for free at an airport supercharger. basically they're consuming over $10K a year for

free. look for changes in that deal so you could "travel" across the US for free but not recharge endlessly at your local charger. the software is already there, they can lock you out quite easily

$1500 for a couple days?

https://www.gothamdreamcars.com/exotic-car-rental/ferrari-california

With a name like "Gotham Dream Cars" I was expecting more batmobiles.

WOW! I think I might rent it for a weekend and take it up to the Bonneville salt flats and see how fast it will go get stuck.

The flats are closed at present.

Just use the roads like all the other supercar drivers.

The battery technology just isn't there yet to be a major threat to the oil or gas car companies and they know it (in my opinion). Yet.

The majority of consumers will stick with gas cars for quite some time unless a major breakthrough occurs in battery technology to reduce the battery life cycle costs and (scarce exotic materials required), and to a lesser extent battery energy density, charger costs and grid generation.

At that time however you may start to see charging stations popping up in all major malls and parking garages.

Well the battery driven electric car is just a bridge to fuel cell powered electric cars....starting development of the electrically driven car, without the hydrogen fuel structure in place, allowed manufacturers to develop the electric drive systems in preparation for the ultimate goal of hydrogen powered cars...We will probably use natural gas as a source of hydrogen until a cleaner source is developed...but it too, is just a bridge....as is corn derived ethanol a bridge to cellulosic ethanol....

I think it's really the other way round. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are woefully inefficient compared to full Battery Electric. A fuel cell cars still needs batteries to provide peak power anyway. The fuel cell is just an expensive range extender.

In my opinion, battery tech will have surpassed fuel cell for range by the time 10% of the fueling stations have been installed.

I'm sure there's room for both and probably even hybrids...Arguments tend to evaporate over time as technological innovation changes the game and new players emerge...It's impossible to predict the future based on what seems to be the logical choice today...

With all the investment Musk and his investors have so far spent, I don't see Tesla going away any time soon. Musk may be a dreamer, but I hope he succeeds. Batteries are the one weak link in the chain. If that can be successfully solved, electric cars will take off big time.

The big three have not pushed electric cars much. They are relying on the ICE as the #1 means of power. It doesn't sound like they are worried.

batteries are not the weak link, charging them quickly and easily is

The energy per mile for a Nissan Leaf (for instance) is .34 KWH/mi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_per_gallon_gasoline_equivalent

The total number of miles driven in the US (2010) = 2.5 trillion miles.

http://cars.lovetoknow.com/about-cars/how-many-miles-do-americans-drive-per-year

So if everyone drove an electric car, the total energy required from the electric grid would be 800 millon MWHr

The total electric energy consumption per year for the US (2010) was 4,686,400,000 MWHr

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_consumption

So we're talking about a 17 percent increase in the size of the electric grid to power all of the electric automobiles.

If I remember correctly, Musk is building the biggest battery manufacturing facility in the US. His goal is to be the most cost efficient battery supplier, and then sell his batteries to the other automakers. This should be interesting to watch.

I'm excited to see where the discovery of the Weyl Fermion will take electronics. Though it will probably take 20+ years for them to become a useful application as well as affordable...

"The physicists also found that Weyl fermions can be used to create massless electrons that move very quickly with no backscattering, wherein electrons are lost when they collide with an obstruction. In electronics, backscattering hinders efficiency and generates heat."

http://www.sci-news.com/physics/science-weyl-fermion-massless-particle-03037.html

Edit: Ah, I see someone has posted this as a blog entry. Cheers anyways.

I don't know if it will be battery powered or hydrogen powered that will win the race, but one thing is certain; electric motors are way more efficient than ICE's and with the elimination of other drag producing elements, like a transmission and differential, no ICE powered vehicle can match it.